Getting Things Done

On Monday and Tuesday this week, Aidan completed all his assigned work during class time, with some time to spare.

Mme showed me a project for Noel. He coloured a Christmas tree and wrote a few sentences on the page, in alternating green and red ink. His printing was very neat, and the project looked nearly finished. Mme explained that this project was 4th on his list of things to do that day, so he had already finished the first 3 items. Wow!!

Where does he get his ideas?

Aidan just walked into the kitchen and asked me, "What do you think would happen if Queen Elizabeth fell asleep in her bathroom?"

My immediate question to him was, "How would they know she was asleep?"

To which he promptly replied, "Well, they probably have window washers ..."

Surprised, I asked, "You think the window washers would be able to see Queen Elizabeth in the bath?!?"

He snuffled, "She wouldn't be in the bath."

So I asked, "What if she's on the toilet?"

"Well, that would be gross. Why do you keep making these things up, Mom? She wouldn't be asleep on the toilet."

I proposed that they might have to break down the door. Aidan agreed, and added, "Or the window. But she probably has about 5 windows. She probably has 5 bathrooms!"

So I asked, "What made you think of this?"

He answered, "Well, she's the queen and she's rich..."

I interjected, "And so you were wondering what might happen if a rich person fell asleep in their bathroom with the door locked?"

Naturally, he responded, "Yes."

I pointed out that that isn't likely to happen very often, he agreed, and we started a new conversation.

(wink!)

Breaking his spirit

I've finally done it. After all these months of working patiently and sensitively with Aidan to guide him through his schoolwork, I lost it.

Perhaps the trigger was the report card that came home on Friday. No grades have been reported because our province's teachers are enduring a long period without an employment contract, but I was reminded of the existence of a grading system. Below C-, we have the letter grade I for "Incomplete" and below I, we have the dreaded, F or "Failing." A student can only receive an F if I has been previously assigned for the course or subject and grade.

So I was reminded of the projects in progress in our dining room. One project was due on November 3 and Aidan has been wanting (I've stopped saying he's trying) to finish it for weeks. Another project was due about a week ago and it is half-finished.

The duotangs that came home in his backpack show several disappointingly empty lines and pages. He has no grade on his dictee for last week, except a teacher comment, "Presque! :)" ("Almost" with a happy face). His teacher has boundless patience and compassion for him - a lot more than I can say for myself this weekend.

He had gotten 1 of the 8 dictee words correct. He had practiced a little, but I know he needs to spend more time at it, to do better. Well, I tried sitting him down on Saturday morning, at the dining room table, to practice the words for Monday's dictee, and he was quick to suggest we do it "later." At that moment, I pounced ... I was the embodiment of a wicked witch and I'm sure my dear child never saw it coming. He recoiled as I vehemently pointed out that, as a result of his choice not to do assigned work, he is getting zero, ZERO, on dictee!

And I went on to attack his character by reminding him that, on a daily basis, he tells me he wants to finish his projects, but at every opportunity, he chooses to do something else. We have a busy household, this weekend was a marathon business financial update session for Skye and I, and Aidan has been taking the opportunity to sneak away from his work at every moment I am interrupted by another family member.

You see, he knows that I'm the only one in the family who cares if the work gets done. He quietly and genuinely explained to me, yesterday, that he does want to finish his book project, but he wants it to get finished "by magic." I told him that he is the magic that will finish the project. It's a beautiful project. It's a work of art. Sixteen pages of full-colour watercolour paintings, with accompanying text. His picture-book interpretation of the novel, "Shipwreck," by Gordon Korman.

Slowly, I am awakening to the understanding that Aidan is an artist. He is a deep thinker and a deep feeler. That's why I fall apart thinking about what damage my criticism has had on him. Several times this weekend, I've heard him refer to himself as an idiot and other derogatory descriptions.

It's not an easy time for us. Our beloved family pet, a tiny beautiful calico cat named Jazz, is dying of bladder cancer before our eyes. Skye and I had to accept the fact that we don't have enough money to buy Christmas gifts this year (of course, we'll find a creative way to put something under the "tree" for the boys, regardless). Skye's grandfather is going through extensive physiotherapy treatments to re-learn how to walk again. Austin has hit a boredom patch in his homelearning program. And we are all still adjusting to life after a wonderful year spent so close together, we were practically within arm's reach at all times.

So now that I've broken the spirit of my precious middle child, I'm feeling pretty broken, myself.

Silly pic

Here's a silly picture that Aidan took, using Photobooth effects. I love the way Aaron is participating in the silliness.

"Jazz"

When we returned from our big 2010/11 trip to the Caribbean, followed by a North American road trip, we picked up Jazz from the loving home of our good friends, where she had stayed during our absence.

Around August 10, we discovered blood in her urine. Our vet was able to see her the same afternoon and she had to stay at the vet's office for several days to undergo blood tests, urine samples, an ultrasound, and bladder surgery to remove a lump the size of a grape from the wall of her bladder.

The pathologist's report was dire and we were advised that Jazz may only have 2 weeks to 2 months to live. She was sent home with some Metacam (an anti-inflammatory pain killer) to help with her pain and possibly retard the growth of a new tumour. Some of the test results revealed that Jazz had hyperthyroidism, so she was also prescribed a twice-daily dose of Tapazole to treat symptoms associated with hyperthyroid.

A few evenings ago, Jazz had blood in her urine. Fearing the worst, I resolved to take her to the vet the next morning. Aidan came with me. Our vet did a physical exam and determined that there was a mass the size of a walnut in her already-smaller-than-normal bladder. Jazz was already on palliative care, but now it seemed that we had come to our final week(s) with her.

I asked the vet to give Jazz an antibiotic injection, in case she had any bacterial infection. And our vet prescribed a week's dose of twice-daily narcotic pain medication. We were advised that we could expect her to be more tired and we could possibly notice a change in her personality. She has certainly been sleeping more than usual, but her personality seems unchanged. She's still very happy to be with us.

Yesterday, our vet (the other vet who owns the practice and has been our vet for over 18 years) called me to recommend another anti-inflammatory drug which would replace the Metacam. It's called Piroxicam and she said it has proven to noticeably retard the growth of tumours in the bladders of cats. It is secreted through the urine, so this is why (they suspect) it has been particularly effective on bladder cancers. I asked our vet if we might already be too far along, or if the drug could actually reverse some tumour growth. She said it may shrink the tumour. So, we are giving this a try. Jazz needs to take this medicine once every two days and we have a one-month supply.

Other than this tumour in her bladder, Jazz is the picture of health. This makes the idea of losing her, even harder to accept and understand. She is still vibrant, energetic, loving, affectionate, her coat is soft and shiny and she still looks after herself well. She hasn't lost any weight since August and she continues to eat normally. Aidan has noticed, however, that she is drinking less water, which he surmised must be deliberate on her part, to avoid needing to urinate too frequently. According to our vet, other pet owners with cats going through this, have reported the same findings.

Aidan is showering Jazz with love and nurturing kindness. He finds her the minute he's home from school and he sleeps with her every night. He has moved to the bottom bunk (Aaron's bunk) so he can be at a height which is easier for Jazz to navigate. And last night, when Skye insisted that Aaron sleep in the bottom bunk, Aidan set up to sleep on the couch. Jazz curled up at his legs and slept contentedly all night long. I know she knows we love her and I hope we will get some more time with her still.

And the flood gates opened!

For about the past 6 weeks, I've been encouraging Aidan to write out a draft of a creative writing project on an alien encounter. The farthest we've ever gotten, was for Aidan to write out about 6 lines of text to start out his story.

Aidan suffers from no lack of imagination, but when it comes to recording his thoughts on paper, the creativity juices slow to a halt. He's always indicated a willingness to do the work, but when we try to settle into doing written work, he is easily distracted by almost anything.

Since he has creative writing tomorrow morning with his Friday teacher who holds a special place in his heart, I suggested that Aidan record himself (using PhotoBooth) dictating his story so I could type it out for him. The plan was, that I would type out a story draft of what he recorded (purely unedited), and he could make changes to the text.

He recorded an 18-minute video of this story, which translated into 1500 words of text! I noticed that Aidan needs a refresher on phonics for the letters C and S, so I'll go over  that with him, later. He was playing with Austin's organic chemistry molecular modelling kit, so I think that provided some inspiration for parts of the story (the atmosphere, oxygen and hydrogen...)

If I've interpreted Aidan's story correctly, I think it's pretty cool whom he selected to bring back to earth as a discovered alien. I'd really like to hear an interview with his character, Charlie Calvan, upon returning to the planet he once called home!

His story seems to be bringing in the concepts of different measures of time and space, different substances on the alien planet...

Introducing, for your reading pleasure ....

Aidan’s Alien Story, Draft 1

One day, when I was at the space centre, I got to control a probe and after a couple of days, I just let it sit there out in space and then when I came back, it was gone. Just gone. I couldn’t control it anymore. All there was, was just a little piece of metal left, and it was only on the camera. 

So, they sent me out to go see if it even was still there, and if that was just a little piece of a satellite. Then they did. And so I went out and I was in space for three days, one day away from the moon. 

And then suddenly, I saw things like rocks and they were like I was just amazed! They looked tiny. They were just tiny. Really tiny. Then they were just smashing against the spaceship as if it was like a magnet. But then, I saw this weird colour of meat sitting out in space. I could barely see it from of all those little things.

They were called Karcuse (carsoos). K-A-R (car) and then C-U-S-E. So that’s what they were spelled like. And millions of them! But that weird colour of meat! It was like purple and green. No one would expect a meat like that, would they? And so suddenly, all of them just went off the ship and right onto it. In just a couple of seconds, it was gone. Just this really strange skeleton that was almost as big as my shuttle. But it was huge! Those little things! Tiny things! This big or something. Just attacking that. Just a couple of seconds later. But there was thousands. Just a couple seconds later. . .Yeah.

And so, I was like, “Whoa! Alien Discovery. I must have discovered aliens! I’m going to go check it out.” And so I did. And then, I checked it out and kaboom! It was a planet that if you got stuck into its atmosphere, you go down into the planet. But it has this second type of atmosphere. It’s a floating atmosphere that it will make them not. .. It will just slow them down.

Then suddenly, a whole bunch of those things, and I felt like the first one to be on that planet, ever. And so I felt like, “There’s not going to be oxygen here.” But then suddenly, I saw this person waving their arms and saying, “Help!” surrounded by these weird type of creatures. It was like they had fur, but it was spikes! That were real sharp. And they didn't even have teeth. Instead it was just muscle that could crush anything. And so what they would do is they’d put rocks inside that muscle, and then get them stuck in little pieces of bone and then eat. And so that’s how they would eat. And they only had two huge front teeth, one metre long. But they were huge! About 3/4 the size of my shuttle and my shuttle is huge. But everything there was big!

The birds, I saw even one of them so big I couldn't believe it! It was 3 times bigger than my shuttle and that was a regular bird. But the biggest bird that I found out on this planet, was called Carkases (sarcassus). So huge things just going by me, but the smallest things were those little things and they were even small on our planet. And so from humongous things to tiny. But the biggest thing ever that I saw wasn't the same species that I’m talking about, but huge. It was 39 times bigger than my shuttle. And my shuttle was big. It was about, let’s see, 30ft long or something like that. No, much bigger than that. It was 60 feet something. No, 69 feet and 11 inches. Just one inch longer and that would just be the flames. And so it’s practically just 70 feet. And so 30 times bigger! That’s a lot!

And so, I was amazed of all these creatures. But there was just one. The one that I saw, the carcass out there. Well, I’m just going to start discovering. So it all, when I found out about the probe. That’s part of it when I discovered, but the main part was what it looked like. So I noticed the colour of its meat - green and purple sort of bangs. And then, boom! It’s like, Wow! When I first saw it, I was amazed, but their babies. It’s like they were huge! Just giant! And their babies were huge. I could take one with me, but it would be quite hard. But I decided to, and raise one. 

And then I realised, this planet drifts and I have to wait 10 years until I get back and so I would run out of fuel. Either go down or run out of fuel. That was my only choice. So I had to go down. And so I took out rifles and stuff but they were useless, completely useless. You couldn't use them at all. And so I was like, “What!?” 

And then, I found out the creature that I was deciding to study on was the most intelligent. And so it came down to me and it handed me this weird thing. It looked weird, slimy-ish. Just the part where you held on, that’s where he said. So it’s like, “This?” And it gave me some pile of slimy stuff to eat, like, “Ugh!” But then, I asked, “How old are you?” And then he just said, “Twenty-five point nine thousand years old.” And that, I flipped, I’m like, “Could you please come with me?” And he said, “No. There’s two atmospheres in our world and that’s what keeps us breathing. The birds of our place have special feathers. They have spikes on them but they’re really heavy, and they can fly. How strange is that? Strange. We have these type of birds in a cold place. Oh yes, we have a cold place too. It’s called Poleinca (poleensa).”

“Poleinca?” I said. “Wow! That’s a strange name.” 

“And then we have Poleinca North.”

“Where’s that?” 

“Well, let’s see. Where’s your compass. You can’t really tell, really. It just stays one way ... the arrow. It never moves.”

And so, I checked it out. He pointed where the north Poleinca was. It was pointing south.

To my amazement, I actually realised that North Poleinca was south. So they had it backwards. Our life is small. Their life is big. 

But then, I asked, “How long does ... What?! Wait a minute. There aren’t any trees!”

“What are trees?”

“Things that produce air. How do you get air?”

“From space. It turns into oxygen. First it turns into H2O, and then all the hydrogen comes off and then it just turns into oxygen. A whole bunch of it. So much. It’s all the moist. Anything moist in space. One little lump just keeps it going. And so we have a whole bunch of air. But these superpoles. That’s what we call our trees. They’re great.”

“And so how can I get back home?”

“Well, you will have to do this. Wait 10 years, or maybe 10,000. Let me try to think.”

“No, don’t let it be 10,000. I won’t live for long.”

“On this planet, everything lives for long. We’ve had one of your species come here before. He was named Charlie Calvan. He was dangerous to us. He was the first. But then, just 10,000 years later, he said, “How am I alive? I should be dead.”

“Well, I didn’t expect that, so I’d like to see your planet, ours.”

“Uh, I don’t know.” 

But they did. And the person who was surrounded by the porcupine dogs. The big beasts came in and just destroyed them. 

So we ended up only taking one of those aliens, and that person was Charlie Calvan who we took. 

And so I just am going to my amazement, “This is it! I’m going home!” 

But then he said, “Has it been 10 years yet?” 

And then I went, “Oh, I don’t know. This I really don’t know.”

And so we had to go back so we just wasted most of our fuel getting back out. But then we waited 10 years later, we were getting back on track. And so then we made it there.

We got home and showed the science museum all about this stuff.

The End.

Spelling

We worked on Spelling this evening. This is Aidan's best subject in school.

A few days ago, he had worked independently on an assignment to complete a word chart for the word endings, "ed" and "ing." He had forgotten the rule about doubling the last letter in words that have a short vowel followed by just one consonant, so "slipped" was "sliped," "clubbed" was "clubed," and so on.

When we reviewed this assignment together, he enjoyed playing with how those words would sound, the way he had misspelled them. I noticed that he doesn't always know the phonetic rules for the changing sounds of vowels when we add an "e," for example. Once we went through a few, though, he picked up on the expected sounds.

Thank goodness he isn't self-critical. He actually seemed to be having some fun with the exercise.

The Hurricane Simulator

We visited the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center in San Diego.

One of their permanent exhibits is a Geometry Playground - cool climbing structures that remind one of M.C. Escher's art. All the boys loved to climb around on the structures.

Aidan asked me to pay for a round in the Hurricane Simulator. I believe the winds increased up to 90 mph while Aidan was standing in the chamber. He had to cover his ears because it got to be so loud.

That was my best "r," ever!

Aidan and I are at the library, in my first attempt to work on homework away from family distractions. At home, a 10-minute assignment can take up to two hours, as Aidan wafts away on various tangents.

We are beginning with a blank two-sided form containing 4 French verbs to be conjugated into présent and passé composé tenses. Usually, his verb sheet comes home, partially-completed, with a few jottings in the margins. I'm hoping we'll have time to get through more than just this sheet in the 45 minutes I've set aside for spending in the library.

Three minutes in, and he's completed all the présent forms for "respecter," and the first two forms of passé composé. At "Il a respecté," he stops and, in a loud whisper, remarks, "Whoa! That was my best "r" ever! Look, Mom! Have you ever seen such a beautiful "r?" And he was off ... into the land of forming the perfect printed letter. I've been encouraging him to print, up-to-down, rather than his habitual down-to-up. Now, it's more common for him to begin letter formation from the top, but he still writes, "i," starting from the bottom line.

He showed me how he likes to draw d's and b's, starting with a straight line, then he forms a precise intersection of the line and the partial circle, to complete the letter. I have to admit, it's a really nice-looking "d." Then, he showed me how the perfect "z" actually has a smaller top horizontal line than the bottom, and it needs to have a perfectly diagonal line joining them. He explained, if he were teaching kids to print this letter, he might show them that they could print an "N," then turn it on its side to become a "z." But he pointed out that some kids might get tricked into drawing an "n" (in lower-case) by mistake, and when they turn that letter to its side, it will look nothing like a "z!"

For the letter, "s," he likes to draw a smaller curve for the top, with a bigger curve on the bottom. And again, there's no disputing his carefully drawn, "s," is nothing short of perfect.

He circles his best work, individual letters on the page, and speculates if Mme. ever wonders about all his "scribbling."

Next, he proceeds to circle all the lower-case u's that were pre-printed on the page, and points out that they're not right. They don't have the vertical line that comes down on the right side. I hadn't noticed this detail before, but explained to Aidan that it's only a different font. He asked, "What's a font?" and a feeling of dread welled up inside me as I imagined yet another tangent to veer us away from the verb conjugation. I gave him a quick answer that it's just a "style of lettering," and encouraged him to get back to conjugating "heurter," verb #2.

So, despite my repeated efforts to bring him back to writing out his verbs, we've managed to be here nearly an hour and only completed two "ER" verbs. They're all "ER" verbs this week. Nothing special or irregular.

Bewildering as this may be, this is all we've completed tonight. About 15 minutes ago, he stopped altogether and stared forward. His body slumped into his chair, and he told me he just wants to look for a book. I offered to look for one for him, if he tells me what he has in mind, and he said, "I don't know what I want, yet. I won't know until I see it."

The Fortune Cookie

Last week, on hot lunch day, Aidan had a Wok Box of "Dragon Chicken" and rice. It came with two fortune cookies.

Aidan loves fortune cookies - more the fortunes than the cookies.

He was particularly surprised by one of the fortunes, which read, "You will soon gain something you have always desired."

Grinning widely, he enthused to me after school, "Wow! How could that be possible? If it's something I've always desired, it must be my Mom!!"

**That's my boy!!**

And we have a cover!

Aidan painted the cover for his children's picture book version of Shipwreck, by Gordon Korman. Only 16 more paintings and pages of text to go!

He sure likes to work with the paints and the different sizes of paintbrushes. He decided to name the paintbrushes, "Focus," "Steady," "Get Ready," and "Painter." He's working with a special watercolour paper and a semi-moist watercolour set from Russia.

Now, he's working on his dedications. ;)

Never say, "Never"

So Aidan inquired, this evening, as he was working on an art project ... "Do you think we might be able to buy a house in San Francisco, someday?"

I answered that it's possible ...

Austin chimed in, "We could never afford that!"

I casually said, "Never say never."

And Aidan fell into song in a show tunes style: "Never say never, whatever you do..." He says it came from the movie, "An American Tale."

Spelling to a beat

The other day, I noticed that Aidan had misspelled "parce que" in one of his sentences completed in class.

We drove to Ron Andrews Rec Centre to pick up Austin from his Bronze Medallion course. Aidan brought his sidekick with him - his trusty basketball. He was hoping to have a few minutes to practice with me, before Austin came out of the pool.

As I was parking the car in the parking lot beside an empty space, I asked Aidan to spell "parce que." He started with P-A-R-C, then paused. He added an "S" to the end. I told him there's no "S" in "parce que." Then, I asked him what he could do to the "C" to make it sound like an "S." He suggested an accent, and I agreed that was one way, but there are no accents in "parce que," either.

By this time, Aidan had hopped out of the car and began to dribble. I asked him to tell me the name of his basketball team, and he said, "the Celtics." Then, he said, "Oh! I need to add an "S." Then I asked him to listen to the sounds in the name, "Celtics," and he could distinguish the hard "C" before the "S." So, I asked if he knew how to spell, "Celtics," and he said he didn't. So I spelled, C-E-L-T-I-C-S and asked him if he knew, now, what letter could follow the "C" to make it sound like an "S." He answered, "E."

And through this entire conversation, he was dribbling the ball. I asked him to spell, "parce que," again. He started, P-A-R and paused. He picked up the ball and held it. He said, "C," then paused again. This happened several times, where I could only get him to spell P-A-R, then stop. He and I both noticed the rhythm of the ball at the same time, and I suggested that he say a letter for each bounce, and he said, P-A-R-C, then picked up the ball and held it. Again, I asked him to say a letter with each bounce, and he said, P-A-R-C-E, picked up the ball, and bounced, Q-U-E.

The dribbling has helped him to keep going, rather than pausing partway through a word.

Brainstorming novel study

Aidan's teacher read the first book (Shipwreck) in the Island trilogy by Gordon Korman, to the class, in English (Aidan's in grade 4 French Immersion). Now that the novel is finished, the students have a choice of project to complete and hand in.

Aidan has chosen to rewrite the story for children. He will create a picture book which will be 15-20 pages in length. Aidan brought home a stapled set of 8 papers for him to use for his rough draft. There are 21 segments, containing space for a sketch and lines to write the Event, Who's in the picture?, What's in the picture?, and What is written on the page?

Aidan has had this package of papers for 2 days, he had drawn two rough, small pencil sketches and answered the Who and What questions for the first segment. At this rate, he'll have hardly begun by the time the assignment is due!

It's clear that Aidan is very enthusiastic about this project and has some big ideas. He's just having difficulty getting started. He seems to get overwhelmed by his thoughts and ends up not really getting anything recorded.

I decided to try a brainstorming session with him. I pulled out three sets of coloured sticky notes and brought them to the dining room table. We began by writing out the names of all the characters. I gave Aidan his own Sharpie pen so he could write out some brainstorming ideas, but he immediately started writing one of the sentences he wanted to include in his picture book. I let him finish the sentence, then I explained that we will save that step for later. For now, we would be simply jotting down quick ideas to help us organise our thoughts.

So I resolved to do all the writing, while Aidan brainstormed ideas. I asked him to tell me about the events in the story that really made him able to see them happening in his mind. He eagerly interjected and said, "I really could, you know! It was just like I was there while everything was happening." And so, we were off and running. The first event Aidan mentioned was the fire. Eventually, we ended up with a list of 15+ events that he could use for writing his story.

We stuck each event sticky note on the wall, then proceeded to put them into order. Here they are:
1. Plane
2. See the boat for the first time
3. Lyssa got seasick
4. Storm
5. Water flooding the cabin
6. Capt. Cascadden fell overboard
7. Mr. Radford abandoned ship
8. Will cooled the engine by using a towel
9. Explosion! Fire!
10. Boat was sinking
11. Raft
12. Thought J.J. and Lyssa weren't alive
13. Luke realised his friends were unconscious
14. Dolphins
15. Island

To give him a bit of a kick start, I scribed for him and filled in the first three lines of each segment in his package. He told me what to write, and I scribbled it on his pages. When we reached #8, the event in which Will is cooling the engine, I told him I was a bit lost - I couldn't see how we got from Mr. Radford abandoning ship, to a hot engine. Aidan said, "Aaahhhh... yes, we need to add an event ... Lyssa built the engine and got it restarted." And Aidan made a final revision on #14, correcting that it was actually only one dolphin who helped the survivors who were floating on the wreckage of the Phoenix.

Aidan is hooked on this trilogy and has been reading book #2 on his own. Luckily, as we were unpacking, I had discovered an unopened trilogy that Nana had given either Austin or Iain years ago. It was a duplicate of books we already had, so remained unopened until this week. Since our other copies are waiting for us to pick them up in Seattle (Austin read this series while we were sailing in the Caribbean), I'm happy these were ready at hand when Aidan wanted to read them.

It looks like he's going to be another Gordon Korman fan, too. We'll have to dig out our collection and make a few trips to the library to keep him in books!

Hair cut

Aidan has been almost constantly brushing aside his "bangs," and it's becoming a bit of a habit, perhaps even a distraction.

We finally decided to take the time to cut his hair this evening.

We dug out the old, corroded clippers and tried to turn them on. No luck. I pulled out the clipper oil from the kit and it was empty. So, figuring I had nothing to lose, I dropped a bit of olive oil on the blades and, presto! it worked.

Aidan wanted to keep a bit of length on his "bangs," but I'm not a hairstylist, so my haircutting skills are limited. We went with a #6 all over, and I tapered the back with a #3.

Aidan said he was worried that he might not look very smart after getting a buzz cut. After all, his head would seem so much smaller! Then, he hesitated as he looked in the mirror and said, "No, my head is still pretty big." It is a Cove head, so such largeness can't be helped.

The trifling things that concern this boy, crack me up sometimes.

Petit grenouille

We spent Saturday and part of Sunday at my parent's acreage in Aldergrove. It was time to prepare the gardens for winter and bring in the final harvest.

Aidan took the job of digging up carrots, which were well embedded in the hard earth. He also helped a bit with the corn and squash.

On Sunday morning, Papa dug up a few potatoes and I broke off some broccoli. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a little speck of green bounce along the dirt between the broccoli and the rhubarb. It was a tiny tree frog, only about 2 cm long. Aidan captured the frog and showed him to each of us.

Nana suggested that he place the frog under a big rhubarb leaf for protection. Aidan gingerly carried the frog along the edge of the garden and slipped on one of the wooden garden frames. Aidan was so intent on keeping that frog safe, that he suppressed his natural instinct to put out his hands to break his fall. Aidan landed on his side, elbows out, cushioning the frog from the fall.

So, disaster was averted and our sweet petit grenouille (little frog) was safely placed beneath a large rhubarb leaf.

The Fox and the Child

Aidan and I watched The Fox and the Child on September 17th. This is a beautiful film in so many ways. It's filled with meaning and will appeal to animal lovers. The cinematography, music, scenery, relationships and depth of characters are so complete. This is a touching story, which has stayed with Aidan and I long after seeing the film.

One scene, in particular, was so impactful that we discuss the concept of it, time and again. So as not to put out a spoiler, I'll refrain from providing any more details. I highly recommend this film, and suggest that parents of young children first watch without their children, to determine whether it is appropriate for the sensitivities of their unique young ones.

If you are interested, you can watch the trailer for this film.

I found an interview with director, Luc Jacquet. Luc Jacquet also directed the film, March of the Penguins. He was born and raised in Bourg-en-Bresse, France. The Fox and the Child was filmed on location in Plateau de Retord in France, and the Abruzzo in Italy, locations well-known to the director because these were where he spent the summers of his youth.

Quote of the day

"Nothing can die if there's someone or something that loves it." (sic)

Aidan went on to say that ... we ... might ... live forever, but that Garf probably won't. Garf was our dear family pet, a ginger tabby cat, who passed away only 4 days short of his 18th birthday, on February 18, 2010. Aidan believes that Garf lives on in our hearts.

He resolved to talk to his own children about Garf to allow Garf to live a little longer, but he's pretty sure they'll be wrapped up with their own families when the time comes.

Cougars and bears, oh my!!

We live at the base of Mt. Seymour in North Vancouver. Right smack in bear country.

In all the years (almost 14) we have lived in this neighbourhood, until now, I hadn't heard of a local cougar sighting. Bears, yes, but cougars?!? Cougars make me nervous, because they are cats. They are unpredictable, stealthy, and they can pounce and do a lot of harm to little people.

Today, while I was waiting to meet Aidan at his classroom, our neighbour excitedly told me that she had come within 2m of a big black bear, at the top of our street, while she was walking to school to meet her daughter! We have beautiful wooded trails interlaced among the houses in our neighbourhood. We use these trails to get to and from Aidan's and Aaron's schools.

We'll just have to keep alert and prepared to slowly back away if we meet a black bear. If we meet a cougar, well, that cat will have to deal with me!

Basketball clinic

Austin and Aidan attended a basketball clinic on Friday, at a local school gym.

The clinic is run by a young man named Vik. He has boundless energy, is unwaveringly positive, and teaches skills in a fun way. For one practice session, he had players rotating positions on the court. They would enter by running into centre court, then look for an opportunity to take a rebound, dribble the ball up the court and practice a layup at the opposite hoop.

For one of these exercises, Aidan entered the court with his chest-forward power run, assumed his position for the rebound, got the ball and dribbled to just past the centre line. Then, as he looked so intently at the hoop, he picked up the ball and charged forward a few steps to take a shot. I tensed-up as I watched him "travelling" across the court, but the coach never interrupted play or called a violation.

I was so proud of how enthusiastically Aidan participated. We often refer to him as the family contrarian, rarely willing to try new things. And the coach is amazing - this clinic is a really good thing. Hopefully, we'll have more opportunities to attend.

Quote of the day

"Every second, I change a little bit more."